To Kick-off Black History Month 2023 we share an article on the history of the celebration by Daryl Michael Scott, PhD., professor of United State History and chair of the Department of History, Geography, and Museum Studies at Morgan State University. He is also the former President and Vice President for the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.

The story of Black History Month begins in Chicago during the late summer of 1915. An alumnus of the University of Chicago with many friends in the city, Carter G. Woodson traveled from Washington, D.C. to participate in a national celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of emancipation sponsored by the state of Illinois. Thousands of African Americans traveled from across the country to see exhibits highlighting the progress their people had made since the destruction of slavery. Awarded a doctorate in Harvard three years earlier, Woodson joined the other exhibitors with a Black history display. Despite being held at the Coliseum, the site of the 1912 Republican convention, an overflow crowd of six to twelve thousand waited outside for their turn to view the exhibits. Inspired by the three-week celebration, Woodson decided to form an organization to promote the scientific study of Black life and history before leaving town. On September 9, 1915, Woodson met at the Wabash YMCA with Alexander L. Jackson, George Cleveland Hall, William B. Hartgrove, and James E. Stamps to form the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH). Continue reading here.

VISIT OUR DISPLAY AT THE 2023 BLACK HISTORY MONTH MUSEUM AT COLUMBIA CITY THEATER, SEATTLE.  If you’re in the Seattle area come visit our display at the “Call to Conscience” – Black History Month Museum at the Columbia Avenue Theater, Feb 1-28, 2023.

“CALL TO CONSCIENCE” IS A VISUAL CELEBRATION OF BLACK HISTORY. Ours centers “slave rebellions and revolts” across the American continent and the Caribbean on which we have written entries on BlackPast.org, which represent a small fraction of the over 250 documented acts of resistance by enslaved people in the New World. The maps display provides a visual representation of Africans’ determined resistance to enslavement in the New World, which would eventually make sustaining the trade and New World plantations uneconomical for countries like Great Britain and France.

We want you to also contemplate the scale of the slave trade as you look at the vast stretches of territory in which this labor system prevailed for centuries. Then step back and appreciate the importance of slavery to the growth of New World economies by the 19th century.

Explore our page of resources and information on the creation of BHM and the men and women who made it happen.